This invention relates generally to needle stick prevention devices for use with medical syringes, to protect against accidental or inadvertent contact with a hypodermic needle. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved and relatively simple needle guard adapted for safe and easy mounting onto a syringe, and further wherein the improved needle guard may be used with a variety of different syringes having different barrel sizes.
Syringes are used widely throughout the medical profession for administering medication to a patient, and also for drawing body fluid from a patient. A typical medical syringe comprises a hollow syringe barrel in combination with a plunger received slidably therein for delivering or drawing fluid respectively from or into the barrel interior via a hypodermic needle protruding from a front or nose end of the barrel. In recent years, in an effort to prevent the spread of infectious disease, medical syringes have commonly been produced in a lightweight and relatively inexpensive form suitable for disposal following a single use. However, syringe disposal inherently requires some handling of a used syringe by medical personnel, such that occasional accidental or inadvertent needle sticks can occur.
A variety of needle stick prevention devices have been proposed in an attempt to reduce or eliminate the occurrence of accidental or inadvertent needle sticks in the course of post-use syringe handling and disposal. In a typical form, a tube-shaped apparatus is mounted on the syringe barrel and adapted for manipulation between a retracted position exposing the hypodermic needle for use, and an advanced position intended to cover the hypodermic needle and thereby prevent accidental contact therewith. While such devices are capable of reducing incidents of inadvertent needle sticks, they have generally been relatively complicated in construction and thus typically add significantly to the overall cost of the medical syringe. Moreover, such devices have generally been limited to use with a syringe of a single barrel size, and have not been suited for use with syringes of a range of different barrel sizes.
The present invention relates to an improved syringe needle guard which overcomes these problems and disadvantages by providing a relatively simple and easy to use device which can be installed quickly and easily and safely onto a syringe barrel having a range of different barrel sizes to cover the hypodermic needle and thereby protect against accidental needle contact.